Porters' History

First 50 Years

Porters of Liverpool were originally set up during the years before the advent of the First World War by Herbert Gordon Porter. At that time, there were no flag makers in the city and the shipping merchants found it very difficult to meet their customer’s demands.

Herbert launched his fledgling venture on the Dock Road in Liverpool and employed a couple of machinists to help with the production of the flags.

By the 1930s Porters employed approximately 20 to 30 staff and began to build up what was to become a valuable export business supplying governments across the world.

The advent of the Second World War bought with it temporary changes to the running of the company. Porters were, in fact, making Nazi flags for the Germans and the onset of war saw this order being cancelled. Despite this, work was far from sparse. Indeed, throughout the hostilities Porters conducted a lot of work for the MoD and even made flags for the D-day landings.

Porters continued to develop and by the 1950’s employed a total of 70 to 80 people.

Customers and Events

Over its history Porters of Liverpool has supplied its flags to several famous and distinguished customers for many important events. Porters are proud to have:

• made the coffin drape for Winston Churchill’s funeral in 1965;
• supplied flags for the Coronation in 1952 and the Silver Jubilee in 1977;
• made the curtains for the entrance of the opening of the Mersey Tunnel in 1934. However, three days before the opening ceremony it was decided that the curtains were too plain and consequently, Porter’s staff worked through the night for two days adding Liver Birds to them;
• supplied the flag to Sir Ranulph Fiennes in 1982 for his expedition to the North Pole;
• in 1986 provided RAF pilot Micheal Foale aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger a Porters flag;
• provided the coffin drape for Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997;
• most notably supplied the flag used by Robert Scott in 1912 to plunge into the ice of the South Pole. In 1999 this flag was sold at auction for £25,300.

Extract from: More Memories of
Liverpool by Freddy O'Connor
© True North Books Limited 2000

Recent History

In 2000, Porters of Liverpool employed over 50 people and many of its flags continued to be manufactured for the British armed forces and for advertising purposes.

Specialised Canvas Services acquired Porters in 2009 and today they continue to produce high quality flags and banners for the military and major events here in the UK and throughout the world.

 

Porters, 85-89 Duke St, Liverpool L1 5AP
Porters is a division of Specialised Canvas Services Ltd. Registered No. 2895710. VAT Number 580899190

Webite Design by Online Selling Ltd